First Days in Florence, Italy

---

I arrived in Florence, Italy three days ago. I have been here before and I can honestly say it is still my favorite place I have ever visited. It's made even better because I am rooming with one of my best friends. It is so beautiful and so rich with history. The first two days weren't spent doing a whole lot because I seriously needed to recover from my jet lag. The first day we got in during the afternoon and pretty much napped until it was time for dinner where we were treated to a free meal with delicious authentic Italian food. The second day, we did go on the tour of the city. We got to see some really important areas and hear a lot of interesting little tidbits and facts. My friend and I also went to the store to get food to make in the apartment and made our own dinner. After dinner we had a craving for the best thing Italy has to offer, Gelato. It is seriously amazing and wonderful. Sadly, we ended up walking about 5 minutes to get only to discover on our way back that there was actually a gelato shop down the street from us. Today, however, was more productive. My friend and I spent most of it just roaming around the lesser known streets and some of the more well known. We made note of restaurants that we may want to try in the future and ducked into shops that looked interesting. A lot of the day was spent taking pictures of architecture and of each other. Later in the day, the city had the Epiphany Parade which was really cool. Unfortunately, I couldn't see all too well because I am quite short and that makes it hard to see over others. It was quite crowded so it is safe to say it is something enjoyed by many. After that we climbed this awfully steep hill up to San Miniato al Monte which is a church dating back to the 11th century. From the top of the hill you get the most amazing view of Florence. It's just a beautiful landscape as far as the eye can see. The climb is steep and will leave a person winded, but the view is definitely worth it. I will say, as someone who has made this climb in the summer and known the winter, it is definitely easier during winter. While the view was amazing, what I really enjoyed is what can be found behind the church. Back behind the church is this huge cemetery that has amazing sculptures and headstones. It just seems so peaceful and has an appeal to it. I would suggest checking it out if only for a quick glance.

While I do enjoy Florence, that doesn't mean the days have been perfect. There have still been some challenges. First and foremost, it gets quite cold here in Italy in the winter. It is very important that you bundle up and have warm clothing because it is not warm by any means. While hotels may have good heating, most building do not. And, to make matters worse, on our first few hours here, our heating in the apartment did not work at all. It was extremely cold and we were literally shivering in our beds. Thankfully, it got fixed pretty quickly. Fortunately, I do not suffer from homesickness when I travel so that has not been a problem yet. I am, however, susceptible to jet lag due to my inability to fall asleep on airplanes. Quite a bit of the first days, I have been exhausted and no amount of sleep has helped. Thankfully, nearing the end of today, I think my body is started to get accustomed to Italy time. There was also a situation with our oven not working so I had to move some stuff to get to the back only to find it had somehow come unplug. Using it is kind of weird to because you have to turn the timer on before it will start heating up. An important thing to remember it that when in Italy, or Europe in general, look out for people trying to sell you something off the street. They are literally everywhere and they will do pretty much anything to try and make you spend money even if it means chasing you down if you start to walk away.

When coming to Florence be prepared to walk because people walk everywhere here. Today I walked 23,385 steps today.

---